Frequently Asked Questions RK2023

Table of Contents:

1. How do I configure my wifi connection in ArkOS?
2. How do I SSH into ArkOS?
3. I was using Paragon software to add, remove, or modify files on the SD card and now my unit won't boot with the card. What could be wrong?
4. How do I change emulator cores in ArkOS?
5. How do I scrape roms using screenscraper in ArkOS?
6. How can I make text look better in certain games and systems in ArkOS?
7. What are the global event keys and emulator event keys in ArkOS?
8. Where can I find information on where to load roms, available cores, and port information for ArkOS?
9. I can't seem to insert coins in some MAME games. How do I fix this?
10. Can the mouse pointer that's always visible in the upper right corner of Drastic (NDS Emulator) be removed?
11. My unit doesn't seem to boot from the SD card anymore. What could be the issue?
12. How can I access a terminal physically on ArkOS
13. When I'm in a game, I go to the retroarch menu and make a change and when I attempt to save the current configuration, it fails to save. Why is that happening?
14. How do I add and enable background music in ArkOS?
15. What does the Backup settings in the Options/Advanced section do?
16. How do I use ArkOS Browser for managing my roms via a web browser?
17. How can I change or remove the splash screen when loading games?
18. How do I turn on the accessibility features of Retroarch?
19. How do I get out of kiosk or kid UI mode?
20. How do I mount a USB drive for copying and moving files?
21. How does the low battery indicator work?
22. How does the movie/video player work?
23. Where are game saves and savestates stored?
24. Where do I put PSP DLCs?
25. Can the power LED be completely turned off via software?
26. I've added the roms to the appropriate folder, but once I put the SD card inside the console it doesn't seem to find my roms.
27. How do I generate .m3u files for PS1 games in ArkOS?
28. I have duplicate games showing for PS1. How do I eliminate the duplicates?
29. What is BaRT and how do I access it?
30. How do I make use of the second sd slot for roms and games?
31. How do I use the HDMI port?
32. Can I use external controllers with this unit?
33. Can I use bluetooth headphones with this unit?
34. How do I enable Tate mode?
35. How do I make American Laser Games, EASYRPG, ScummVM, or Wolfenstein show up in Emulationstation?

Q. How do I configure my wifi connection in ArkOS?

A. You must have a compatible USB wifi dongle plugged in. See this link for a compatible list of USB wifi dongles. It's also been reported that this TP-Link Archer T2U Nano AC600 unit works very well with ArkOS. It's inexpensive and supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless signals. I personally used this EDUP Nano USB 650Mbps unit and it works very well with ArkOS. It also is very inexpensive and supports 2.4Ghz and 5GHz wireless signals. You then need to do the following:

• Go to the Options menu and select WIFI.
• Then click the A button on **Connect to new Wifi connection" to select your ssid and provide your credentials.
• Once completed, you can then verify that your wifi is connected by pressing the start button and reviewing the SSID: info at the bottom of the menu. You can also verify that you have a valid wireless connection by pressing start and looking at the bottom of menu next to Distro Version or by going to Options then Wifi then Current Network Info and verify you have an assigned IP for your device.

Note: If you have a password that has special characters not available through the Wifi menu option in the Options menu, you can configure your wifi device manually by doing the following:

1. Press Start, scroll down to Quit, then select Quit Emulationstation.
2. Connect a USB keyboard to your device and press ALT+F2.
3. Login using the username of ark and password of ark.
4. Then type sudo systemctl stop networkwatchdaemon
5. Then type sudo systemctl start NetworkManager
6. Then type nmtui to launch the graphical text based Network Manager utility.
7. Click on Edit a connection then Add and follow the menu for configuring your connection.
   • For more information on how to use this utility, check out the article available through this link
   • Configured network connections are stored in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
8. Then type sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager
9. Then type sudo systemctl start networkwatchdaemon

Q. How do I SSH into ArkOS?

A. Verify that you completed the steps in FAQ #1 above to configure your wireless connection. You will then need to do the following:

• Press start to see your the assigned IP to your device.
  • The default ssh port number is 22.
• Select Enable Remote Services from the Options menu so that SSH is enabled before attempting to connect.
• User and Password credentials are ark/ark.
  • Be aware that every time you'd like to access ArkOS on your device from your network, you will need to Enable Remote Services after every reboot. This is a security feature as it's not good security practice to keep remote services active on your device especially when connecting to unknown networks. It also reduces resource overhead for the system to help ensure the best possible gaming experience.
  • If you'd like for ssh to always remain enabled, just type sudo systemctl enable ssh from within a ssh or terminal session.
  • To enable the ability to login as root, do the following while in a ssh or terminal session:
    1. Set a password for the root user by doing sudo passwd root and set your preferred root password following the instructions presented.
    2. Allow root to be able to login through ssh by doing sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config then scroll down to PermitRootLogin and remove the beginning hashtag (#) and set PermitRootLogin to yes. Basically it should say PermitRootLogin yes on that line.
    3. Hit Ctrl+X, then hit y to save the change.
    4. Then either restart ssh by typing in sudo systemctl restart ssh or restart ArkOS.
• If you'd like to enable authorized key based login, do the following from the ssh terminal session:
  • sudo chmod -R 755 /home/ark
  • mkdir -p ~/.ssh && touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  • chmod 700 ~/.ssh && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  • Create and/or copy your public key to the /home/ark/.ssh/authorized_keys file. See this link for help on how to accomplish this if needed.

With great power comes great responsibility! Be careful as you make changes as now you can easily make various changes that can render the OS unstable or unbootable.

Q. I was using Paragon software to add, remove, or modify files on the SD card and now my unit won't boot with the card. What could be wrong?

A. The most probable issue is a corrupted ext4 partition on the SD card. There's been a common occurrence of Paragon corrupting the ext4 partition on SD cards. It's best to use a Linux machine (or a Linux VM) to manage files on the ext4 partition of the SD card. You can try to fix the ext4 partition by following the steps in this link, or simply reimage the card. The ArkOS image linked from this wiki provides an exfat partition for the Roms and Bios folder that is easily accessible from Linux, Mac or Windows without any additional software and is easier for managing such files as you don't have to have a Linux machine or VM.

The other possible issues are:

• The SD card itself is bad. The original SD card that comes with these units are of unknown quality and are most likely low quality.
• The SD card reader on your unit may be bad. At which point, you would need to repair, replace, or return the unit.

Q. How can I make text look better in certain games and systems?

A. Try turning on the RGA Scaling feature. There is a small difference from Bilinear filtering in that this feature does subpixel scaling instead of just smoothing (may look blurry) as bilinear filtering does. This feature can be turned on while in game by going to the retroarch menu, then settings, then video, then scrolling down to the RGA Scaling option and hit A to turn it on. The screen will blank for a few seconds and come back. See if it improves the picture for you.

Q. What are the global event keys and emulator event keys in ArkOS?

A. See hotkey information below

Global Hotkey: R3

R3 and Dpad Up = Brightness Up
R3 and Dpad Down = Brightness Down
R3 and Dpad Right = Volume Up
R3 and Dpad Left = Volume Down
R3 and Volume Up = Brightness Up (Can be held for continuous brightness increase)
R3 and Volume Down = Brightness Down (Can be held for continuous brightness decrease)
R3 and Power = Safely shutdown device
Power (Short Press) = Put device to sleep

Retroarch Hotkey: Select

Select and X or L1+R1+Start+Select = In-game Menu
Select and R1 = Save state or current game
Select and L1 = Load state of current game
Select and A = Pause current game emulation
Select and B = Reset current game emulation
Select and Start = Exit Game/Retroarch (go back to Emulationstation)

Amiberry

• Select + X: Amiberry Menu
• Select + Start: Exit Amiberry.

If you need to be able to use a mouse for a particular game, do the following:

1. Launch a game then go to the Amiberry Menu by pressing Select + X
2. On the left side of the screen, scroll down to Input.
3. Hit right and set Port 0 to Go-Super Gamepad and change Default to Mouse
4. Set Port 1 to Mouse and leave Default as default
5. Then hit left and scroll up to configuration.
6. Hit right and scroll down to the Save button and hit the A button. This will save this configuration as the default configuration for that particular game when it's loaded.

Daphne (Hypseus)

• Select: Coin
• Start: Start game
• A: Button 1
• B: Button 2
• Y: Button 3
• R1: Pause
• Select+Start: Exit Daphne

American Laser Games (Hypseus-singe)

• Select: Coin
• Start: Start game
• A: Button 1
• B: Button 2
• Y: Button 3
• R2: Pause
• Select+Start: Exit American Laser Games

For Drastic (NDS emulator)

• R2: Screen swap between upper and lower DS screens
• L2: Swap between dual screen and single screen view
• Right Joystick: Move the stylus
• R3: Stylus tap
• L3: Drastic menu

To exit the emulator, do so through the Drastic menu.

For OpenBOR

To exit the emulator, hit the Start button then select exit in the menu for most paks or hit Select+Start.

For Pico-8

To exit the system, hit the Start button then Option then select Shutdown or hit Select+Start.
If using the fake-08 emulator, you can hit R1 to change the aspect ratio of the screen.

For PPSSPP (PSP emulator)

• R3: PPSSPP Menu

To exit the emulator, do so through the PPSSPP menu or hit Select+Start.

For Solarus

To exit the system, hit the Select and Start button.

For Mupen64plus standalone emulator

• Select + Start: Exit emulator
• Select + R1: Save State
• Select + L1: Load State
• Select + A: Pause/Unpause emulator
  Note: To change the controller setup, you'll have to manually edit the controller configuration via SSH at /opt/mupen64plus/InputAutoCfg.ini. You can refer to this link for corresponding sdl button numbering.

For TI-99 standalone emulator

• A: Fire
• B: Key 1
• X: Key 2
• Y: Key 3
• L1: FCTN+QUIT
• R1: FCTN+REDO
• L2: Key Space
• R2: Key 0
• L3: FCTN+BACK
• R3: FCTN+QUIT
• Start: Key Enter
• Select: Key P (Usually Pause)
• Select + Start: Exit emulator

For the Dolphin standalone emulator

• Select + R1 = Save Savestate
• Select + L1 = Load Savestate
• Select + Dpad Down = Decrement Save Slot
• Select + Dpad Up = Increment Save Slot
• Select + Y = Save Screenshot
• Select + X = Toggle Stereo audio on or off
• Select + Start: Exit emulator

For the Duckstation standalone emulator

• Select + R1 = Save Savestate
• Select + L1 = Load Savestate
• Select + X = Menu
• Select + Y = Widescreen mode toggle
• Select + A = Screenshot
• Select + B = Reset
• Select + Start = Exit emulator

For Yabasanshiro standalone emulator

• A: C
• B: B
• X: X
• Y: A
• L1: Y
• R1: Z
• L2: L
• R2: R
• Start: Start
• Select: Emulator Menu
• Select + Start: Exit emulator

For File Manager

• D-pad: Move
• L: Page up
• R: Page down
• A when a directory is selected: open directory
• A when a file is selected: view or execute
• B: Go to parent directory / cancel
• Y: System actions: - Select all items - Select no items - Create new directory - Display disk information - Quit program
• X: Actions on selected items: - Copy to destination directory - Move to destination directory - Rename (appears only if 1 item is selected) - Delete Display disk used
• SELECT: Select highlighted item. Selected items are displayed in red.
• START: Open highlighted directory in destination panel. If a file is highlighted, open current directory in destination panel.

For Mednafen based emulators

• Select + A: Pause emulation
• Select + B: Reset emulation
• Select + X: Enable Rewinding
• Select + Y: Toggle FPS display (from top to bottom, the display format is: virtual, rendered, blitted)
• Select + Dpad Left: Decrement selected save state slot
• Select + Dpad Right: Increment selected save state slot
• Select + R1: Save State
• Select + L1: Load State
• Select + R2: Fast Forward emulation
• Select + L2: Rewind emulation (if rewinding is enabled first)
• Select + Start: Exit emulator

Q. How do I change emulator cores in ArkOS?

A. Do the following:

For an entire system library:

• Hit the Start button, then hit A on Emulator Settings.
• Select the system you'd like to change the emulator core for then hit A.
• For emulator, select either retroarch, retroarch32 or standalone where applicable. For core, select your preferred core.

Per game:

• Highlight the game then hit the Select button then hit A.
• Go to Edit This Game's Metadata then go to Emulator and select retroarch, retroarch32 or standalone where applicable. Then go to core and select preferred core.
• Then save the selection.

Q. How do i scrape roms using screenscraper in ArkOS?

A. You'll need a screenscraper.fr account. You can register for a free account at https://www.screenscraper.fr/. Once you've completed that, enter your username and password that you created at the website in the screenscraper es menu then scrape away! Note that if you pay for extra threads, it will increase the speed of scraping. This is useful if you have a large rom collection.

Q. Where can I find information on where to load roms, available cores, and port information for ArkOS?

A. Check this link for more info.

Q. I can't seem to insert coins in some MAME and CPS games. How do I fix this?

A. For some reason, select for credit doesn’t work for some games in MAME and CPS. If you change the coin button to something else like R2 or L2, it works. Below are the instructions you can follow to do this:

• Launch the MAME or CPS game that's having the coin issue.
• Go into the retroarch menu by hitting Select+X.
• Then go to Controls.
• Then go to Port 1 Controls.
• Select an alternate coin button.
  • You can save this setting by going back to the controls menu and selecting one of the 3 save options.
• Hit Select+X to exit the retroarch menu or hit the B button to go back and hit the resume option.

Q. Can the mouse pointer that's always visible in the upper right corner of Drastic (NDS Emulator) be removed?

A. As of the writing of this entry (11/10/2020), it can not be removed. It’s unfortunately a "feature" of the emulator for the time being. Resolved as of the 1/28/2021 update.

Q. My unit doesn't seem to boot from the SD card anymore. What could be the issue?

A. It could be one of the following issues:

• It could be either your SD card is corrupted, failing, or has failed. It is recommended that you use a good name brand SD card such as Sandisk, Samsung, or PNY. For a dependable list of good name brand cards, please check this link. Make sure to buy your SD cards from a trusted retail source. In the United States of America, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target are good sources. Online, SD cards shipped and sold by Amazon are best. Example of such is in this link
• It could be that you're unit's battery is low on charge and you need to charge it. Make sure you let it completely charge.
• It could be that the unit's battery is bad. The included stock battery is of low quality and doesn't maintain battery life consistently among sold units.
• It could be that your unit has suffered a component failure failure. At this point, you'll need to contact rkconsole.com for the original seller you purchased the unit from for further assistance for a replacement or refund if available.

Q. How can I access a terminal physically on ArkOS

A. Do the following:

• Plug in your usb keyboard.
• Exit EmulationStation by hitting Start, then Quit, then Quit Emulationstation.
• On your connected usb keyboard, hit alt-f2.
• You should now have a terminal login screen appear on the screen. User: ark Password: ark
• If you'd like to go back to EmulationStation without restarting, do the following: sudo systemctl restart emulationstation

Q. When I'm in a game, I go to the retroarch menu and make a change and when I attempt to save the current configuration, it fails to save. Why is that happening?

A. The most likely cause is that you have saved a core, content, or game override for the particular emulator core or game you currently have loaded. Once you have those, you will no longer be able to save a global configuration from that emulator core or game. This is by design from libretro. What you'll have to do is from within Emulationstation, scroll through the systems to the retroarch menu, then select either retroarch or retroarch32, then make your global changes there and save current configuration there.

Q. How do I add and enable background music in ArkOS?

A. Do the following:

• Just pop the micro SD card into a card reader, plug it into your Windows 10 1703, Mac OS X, or Linux computer and look for the drive letter named EASYROMS.
• Place all .mp3 files you'd like to use as background music in the roms(EASYROMS)/bgmusic folder on the exfat partition.
• Safely eject your micro SD card from your computer and insert the micro SD card in your rk2023 and turn it on.
• In Emulationstation, press START then go to Sound Settings > Frontend Music > ON.
• Go back out of the start menu and enjoy!

Important Note If your .mp3 music file(s) are not playing, it's mostly likely an issue with the .mp3 files your using. To test and confirm it works on your installation, try the free public domain one on your unit from the link below. If it works, then this confirms that the issue is with your .mp3 file(s). This has been a common issue with music downloaded or converted from YouTube.

Clandestine Operative by Stargazer Jazz provided by freesoundtrackmusic.com

Q. How do I enable rumble(vibration) in pscx_rearmed?

A. Do the following:

• Launch a rumble supporting Playstation game. Check this link for a list of known titles that support rumble.
• Go to the Retroarch Quick menu (Select+X)
• Scroll down to Options then hit the A button.
• Make sure Enable vibration is on.
• Go back to the quick menu by hitting the B button.
• Scroll down to Controls then hit the A button.
• Then scroll down to Port 1 Controls and hit the A button.
• Set Device Type to dualshock by hitting the right d-pad button twice.
• Then hit the B button, then scroll up to Save core Remap File and hit the A button.
• Now exit the menu (Select+X) and enjoy rumble mode!

Note: Some rumble(vibration) supporting games may require that vibration be turned on from its options or settings menu from in game to work as well.

Q. How do I enable rumble(vibration) in flycast_rumble? [5/30/2022 - Not yet available for the RK2023]

A. Do the following:

• Launch a rumble supporting Dreamcast Game. Check this link for a list of known titles that support rumble.
• Go to the Retroarch Quick menu (Select+X)
• Scroll down to Options then hit the A button.
• Make sure Purupuru Pack/Vibration Pack is on.
• Go back to the quick menu by hitting the B button.
• Now exit the menu (Select+X) and enjoy rumble mode!

Note: Some rumble(vibration) supporting games may require that vibration be turned on from its options or settings menu from in game to work as well.

Q. How do I enable rumble(vibration) in parallel_n64?

A. Do the following:

• Launch a rumble supporting N64 game. Check this link for a list of known titles that support rumble.
• Go to the Retroarch Quick menu (Select+X)
• Scroll down to Options then hit the A button.
• Make sure Player 1 pak is set to rumble.
• Go back to the quick menu by hitting the B button.
• Now exit the menu (Select+X) and enjoy rumble mode!

Note: Some rumble(vibration) supporting games may require that vibration be turned on from its options or settings menu from in game to work as well.

Q. What does the Backup settings in the Options/Advanced section do?

A. It backups the following settings to roms/backup/arkosbackup.tar.gz:

Amiberry savestates and whdboot configuration and save
Current Timezone
Drastic emulator configuration
Emulationstation collections
Emulationstation settings
Kodi plugins and settings
Mupen64plus standalone emulator gamepad configuration
Retroarch configurations for both 64 bit and 32 bit
Retroarch cheats for both 64 bit and 32 bit
Retroarch overlays for both 64 bit and 32 bit
Wireless connections

Important Notes:

• As the compressed file will contain sensitive information such as wireless ssid passwords, it should be stored securely off the sd card once created if there's a concern of possible prying eyes.
• An accompanying log file (arkosbackup.log) is also created in the roms/backup/ folder.
• Only one backup file is created and currently supported with these options. A new backup process will overwrite the existing backup and logfile in the roms/backup/ folder.
• When restoring your backups, if you're using a 2 sd card setup, your backups have to be restored from the backup folder located on your tf1 card.

Q. How do I use ArkOS Browser for managing my roms via a web browser?

A. Do the following:

1. Ensure you've configured your wifi following instructions here
2. Make sure to Enable Remote Services by scrolling to Options and Hit A on Enable Remote Services
3. Once enabled, go to your desktop or mobile browser and type http://rk2023
   Username: ark
   Password: ark
4. Once you've successfully logged in, you'll see the contents of the EASYROMS(roms) folder.
5. You can Upload your roms and Download your roms into the various folders.

Create a file/directory

Click on "New folder" on the left side menu and enter a name for your new directory.

Similarly, you can create a new file from the main interface.

Once you have created the directory, you'll be redirected into that directory. If not, just double click on it to open. From there, you can upload files/folders or download the existing files.

Upload Files

To upload a new file, click on the Upload button (Up arrow) on the top and choose the files you want to upload.

The selected file will be uploaded in few seconds depending upon the size.

Download files

Choose the file you want to download and hit download button (down arrow) on the top.

Single files can be downloaded directly. Also, you can download more than one files at a time. Multiple files can be downloaded as .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 or .tar.xz.

Similarly, you can remove or copy your files.

Q. How can I change or remove the splash screen when loading games?

A. You can choose to use ascii art as your splash screen by simply going to Options/Advanced and select Switch launchimage to ascii. To switch back to jpg images, simply go to Options and select Switch launchimage to jpg.

You can change the splash screen by uploading a new splash screen image in the /roms/launchimages folder. The image must meet the following criteria:

• Must be in .jpg format
• Must be named loading.jpg. The name is case sensitive!
• Must be 640 pixels in width and 480 pixels in height.
• Must be of 24 bit depth

If you'd like to remove the splash screen all together, just rename the loading.jpg file to something else or simply delete it.

You can also update loading.ascii with your own ascii art if you prefer. You can also simply delete it.

Q. How do I turn on the Text to Speech accessibility feature of Retroarch?

A. Do the following:

1. Scroll to the Rertroarch system in Emulationstation then hit the A button.
2. Then select Retroarch or Rertroarch32.
3. Once in the Retroarch menu, hit the A button on Settings, then Accessibility, then Accessibility Enable. You can also adjust the speed of the Text-to-Speech.
4. Once completed, Hit the B button twice, then scroll down to Configuration file, hit the A button then scroll down to Save Current Configuration and Hit the A button again.

Q. How do I get out of kiosk or kid UI mode?

A. Do the following:

Using the left joystick (NOT THE DPAD!) do up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. You should now have access to the full UI.

Q. How do I mount a USB drive for copying and moving files?

A. Do the following:

1. Plug in a USB drive that is formatted in Fat, Fat32, Exfat, or NTFS to one of the USB-C ports.
2. While in Emulationstation, go to Options and select USB Drive Mount.
   • Note - Only the first available partition on the USB drive will be mounted!
3. If the USB drive has been successfully mounted, you will see a notification on the screen that it's been mounted to /mnt/usbdrive. If not, double check that you plugged in the drive correctly and that the file system on it is not corrupted and is one that is supported as listed in step 1 above.
4. You can now use File Manager to navigate to /mnt/usbdrive to access the mounted USB drive to copy and/or move files between it and ArkOS.
5. When you're done copying and/or moving files within File Manager, be sure to go back to to Options and select USB Drive Unmount before unplugging your drive or you may risk corrupting the USB drive's file system.

Q. How does the low battery indicator work?

A. The following will occur:

• The power led will turn red when battery life is less than 20 percent.
• The power led will blink red every 1 second when battery life is less than 10 percent.

Q. How does the movie/video player work?

A. The movie/video player is ffplay. More information about ffplay is available in this link

• Supported movie/video formats are .avi .mp4 .mpg
• Supported movies/videos need to be loaded in the videos subfolder within the roms folder.
• Up to 720p seems to perform fine with limited testing.
• Support will be limited for this feature. If a video/movie doesn't work on this, try a lower resolution or just use a more suitable device like a smartphone. Note: Kodi is also available on this unit. You can just press the start button and select Kodi Media Center to load it. You can also quick exit Kodi by just holding the select key then pressing the start button.

Controls:

• A: Pause
• X: Mute
• L2: Seek to the previous chapter or if there are no chapters, seek 10 minutes back.
• R2: Seek to the next chapter or if there are no chapters, seek 10 minutes forward.
• Dpad Left: Seek 1 second back
• Dpad Right: Seek 1 second forward
• Dpad Up: Seek 1 minute forward
• Dpad Down: Seek 1 minute back
• Select+Start: Exit player

Q. Where are game saves and savestates stored?

A. Game saves and savestates are stored in the respective content folder for each system.

Ex. GBA .srm files and .state files would be saved in /roms/gba.

Q. Where do I put PSP DLCs?

A. The same way as on a real PSP. /roms/psp/ppsspp/PSP/.

If its savedata dlc: place it in the SAVEDATA folder. If its a game data DLC: place it in the GAME folder

Q. Can the power LED be completely turned off via software?

A. No. This LED can only be changed from green to red and back again. It can not be completely turned off via software.

Q. I've added the roms to the appropriate folder, but once I put the SD card inside the console it doesn't seem to find my roms.

A. Check the following:

• The roms are in the supported extension for the system per the Emulators and Ports section
• Try pressing start then go to UI Settings then visible systems and make sure to select all.
• Try pressing start then go to Advanced settings and be sure parse gamelists only is off.

Q. How do I generate .m3u files for PS1 games in ArkOS?

A. Do the following:

1. Load all of your ps1 .cue or .chd files into the /roms/psx folder.

   • Only .cue or .chd files are possible for creating .m3u files in ArkOS!
   • If you wish, you can place your ps1 games within individual sub folders within the /roms/psx folder. For example, you can put all of your Metal Gear Solid cue/bin or chds within /roms/psx/mgs folder and this tool will still work.
   • Your multi disc games should have the word Disc as part of it description in order to properly generate a good m3u file.

2. Go to the Options section in Emulationstation just above Retroarch and select PS1 - Generate m3u files and when completed, the screen will show what all m3u files were created.

   • If you add additional multi disc games after running this tool, be sure to go to the Options section in Emulationstation just above Retroarch and select PS1 - Delete m3u files and then recreate them. Failing to do so will create additional entries in existing m3u files that may cause issues.

Q. I have duplicate games showing for PS1. How do I eliminate the duplicates?

A. This is most likely caused by having multiple .cue or .chd files for multi disk games. Do the following:

1. Be sure to follow the steps here for generating .m3u files in ArkOS
2. Then go to the Options section in Emulationstation just above Retroarch and select PS1 - Show only m3u files.
3. Emulationstation will restart and you should only have single entries for your multi disk games.

Q. What is BaRT and how do I access it?

A. BaRT is short for Boot and Recovery Tool. It allows the following:

• You can switch to a Retroarch only interface on boot.
  • In this mode, no additional tools or standalone emulators are accessible. This means no NDS, no standalone PSP, no TI99. To enable remote services, you must do so through BaRT. To use a File Manager, you must do so through BaRT. Of course, you can always just switch back to Emulationstation anytime as well and access these standalone emulators and tools.
• If Emulationstation doesn't load due to a bad configuration of the es_systems.cfg file, you can load BaRT and
  • Connect to Wifi
  • Enable remote services to handle recovery tasks,
  • Load 351Files for file management needs
  • Drop into terminal mode by connecting a keyboard and hitting alt+f2.
• To access BaRT, just hold the B button while booting and in a few seconds, you should be presented with the Boot and Recovery Tools screen similar to this:

Q. How do I make use of the second sd slot for roms and games?

A. Do the following:

1. Make sure you have a micro sd card that is preformatted to Exfat, EXT4, Fat, Fat32 or NTFS.
   • For best performance, use EXT4, Exfat or NTFS.
     • If using EXT4, be sure that permissions for the contents of the second sd card are set to user/group 1002:1002. Otherwise, you may experience issues with successfully running games for some systems.
2. Go the Options section just after ScummVM and before Retroarch and click the A button.
3. Click on Advanced.
4. Then click on SWITCH TO SD2 FOR ROMS.
5. If a preformatted micro sd card has been found, it will be mounted and the system will setup the appropriate roms folders on it if they don't exist already.
   • Existing roms folders, roms, bios, and games on this sd card will NOT be overwritten during this process.
   • Once ArkOS is setup to use the second sd slot for roms and games, your main sd card and your roms sd card must be in the unit for ArkOS to boot.
   • This process will NOT copy any of your roms, games and saves from the main SD card to the secondary card. It will just create the structure for you. You'll need to copy those yourself. You can use File Manager from the Options menu to do this or copy them manually from your computer.

Q. How do I use the HDMI port?

A. With the unit powered off, plug the device into your HDMI TV or monitor. Then power the device on.

• You must have a compatible mini HDMI cable. There have been reports that some HDMI cables don't work correctly with this unit. Make sure you have one that is relatively new and of known good quality.

Q. Can I use external controllers with this unit?

A. Yes. Bluetooth and USB controllers should work with the unit. For bluetooth controllers, make sure to go to Bluetooth in the options system section just before Retroarch and run it. It will start the Bluetooth connection manager. Put your bluetooth controller into pairing mode and select Connect to new Bluetooth device and add your bluetooth device.

Notes:

• Be sure Bluetooth is on. You can confirm bluetooth is on by pressing start and verifying it says BT:On In the status section at the bottom of the menu. If it says BT:Off, Hold F then hit R3 which should toggle it on. You can confirm by hitting start twice again To refresh the status area.
• Be sure to setup your external controller in Emulationstation by hitting start then Configure Input. This will allow your external controller to navigate the Emulationstation menu and Retroarch based emulators
• When using an external controller, only Retroarch based emulators will be automatically setup when configured through Emulationstation. External emulators such as standalone mupen64plus, PPSSPP, and SCUMMVM may need additional manual configuration via SSH.

Q. Can I use bluetooth headphones with this unit?

A. Yes. Bluetooth headphones should work with the unit as of the ArkOS v2.0 (11/01/2022) updated. Make sure to go to Bluetooth in the options system section just before Retroarch and run it. It will start the Bluetooth connection manager. Put your bluetooth headphones into pairing mode and select Connect to new Bluetooth device and add your bluetooth headphones.

Notes:

• Be sure Bluetooth is on. You can confirm bluetooth is on by pressing start and verifying it says BT:On In the status section at the bottom of the menu. If it says BT:Off, Hit the F button which should toggle it on. You can confirm by hitting start twice again To refresh the status area.

Known issues:

• The Emulationstation interface needs to be restarted after successfully connecting to bluetooth audio in order for interface sound effects to route via bluetooth. Just press start, then go to quit, then press A on the Restart Emulationstation menu option.
• Audio from video snapshots and video screensaver does not play when bluetooth audio is connected. Resolved as of 01/03/2023 update.

Tips:

• If you're experiencing excessive audio delays (of about 1 second or more) in retroarch based emulators, try reducing the retroarch audio delay configuration by going to retroarch Settings>Audio>Output>Audio Latency (ms). It's set by default to 128. You can try reducing that to 64 or another number and see if that helps.

Q. How do I enable Tate mode?

A. Tate mode is available for Arcade, CPS1, CPS2 and CPS3 systems. Just set the emulator to retroarch-tate and select either fbneo or mame2003 for your core.

Q. How do I make American Laser Games, EASYRPG, ScummVM, or Wolfenstein show up in Emulationstation?

A. Make sure you load the appropriate support files into the respective folders. See the Emulators Information section for more info. Then make the system visible from the Emulationstation start menu by pressing the start button, then press the A button on UI Settings, then press the A button on Visible Systems. Select the systems you want visible by highlighting them then pressing A or scroll to the bottom and press Select All. Then press the B button then press Start. The additional systems you selected should now be visible.